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'Black Rock' review: Woman-hunt tale whose only suspense is waiting for it to get better
By Alonso Duralde LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - I kept forgiving "Black Rock" for being a so-so action movie because I was waiting for it to turn into something else: a rumination on gender roles, perhaps, or even an examination of the government's ambivalent response to the veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. But no, as it ambled along to its fairly inevitable climax, it was clear that a so-so action movie is all it was ever planning to be. One could argue that waiting for a movie to improve counts as actual suspense, but in this case, that's an exceedingly generous interpretation. ... Read More »
'The English Teacher' review: Agile performances elevate this pleasant comedy
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Review: Musical using Leo Tolstoy a messy thrill
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'Frances Ha' review: A lovable loser, neither coddled nor punished
By Alonso Duralde LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Filmmakers are the parents of their characters in more ways than one; artists don't just give birth, they also have to guide their creations through life. Some filmmakers are too quick to punish flaws and to force their children to melt under their judging gaze; others coddle and rationalize, letting their brats run rampant and pretending that their bad behavior is adorable. ... Read More »
Review: No passing grade for 'English Teacher'
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US-REVIEW Summary
Novelist Irvine Welsh spies future in mixed-media BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Electronic publishing is allowing authors to be more creative and the best ones are successfully blending video and online content with traditional text, says cult writer Irvine Welsh. The author of "Trainspotting" and "The Acid House", who has also written short stories and plays, said e-publishing meant writers had to work harder to grab readers' attention in an age when wireless devices are rapidly replacing paperback books. ... Read More »
Review: Grant returns gracefully with new album
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Review: 'Metro: Last Light' a can't-miss shooter
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Review: 'Metro: Last Light' digs deep under Moscow
What are you doing after the apocalypse? Read More »
Book Talk: Of apes and atheists - is empathy evolution?
By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - For biologist Frans de Waal, a peaceful species of great ape in Africa is a mirror of humanity and a living argument that empathy and cooperation are far from unique to mankind. "The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism among the Primates", argues that both traits may be evolved behaviors based on his studies of the bonobo, which is found only in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other primates. ... Read More »
Review: Clever 'Stories We Tell' explores memory
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Critics label Dan Brown's "Inferno" a clunky page-turner
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Dan Brown's "Inferno" novel in hot demand ahead of release
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'12th of Never' climbs to top of U.S. best-sellers list
NEW YORK (Reuters) - "The 12th of Never," by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, climbed to the top of the U.S. best-sellers list on Thursday. The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. "The 12th of Never" by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown, $27.99) 18 2. "The Hit" by David Baldacci (Grand Central, $27.99) 1 3. "Whiskey Beach" by Nora Roberts (Putnam, $27.95) 2 4. "Daddy's Gone a Hunting" by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster, $26.99) 4 5. ... Read More »
Book Talk: "The Last Train to Zona Verde," Paul Theroux's African signoff
By Randall Mikkelsen BOSTON (Reuters) - Paul Theroux said his literary goodbye to Africa at a train station in Luanda, Angola, five decades after he first visited the continent as a Peace Corps volunteer. In his new book, "The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari," Theroux describes a journey through South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola that dead-ended at the depot when he felt no need to go further. The book, he says, represents a final chapter on his travels in Africa. Theroux's first book on Africa was a novel. ... Read More »
Author Murakami makes first Japan public appearance in 18 years
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'The Hit' soars to top of U.S. bestsellers list
NEW YORK (Reuters) - David Baldacci's new book, "The Hit," soared to the top of the U.S. bestsellers list on Thursday. The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. "The Hit" by David Baldacci (Grand Central, $27.99) - 2. "Whiskey Beach" by Nora Roberts (Putnam, $27.95) 1 3. "Fly Away" by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's, $27.99) - 4. "Daddy's Gone a Hunting" by Mary Higgins (Simon & Schuster, $26.99) 2 5. "Paris: The Novel" by Edward Rutherfurd (Doubleday, $32.50) - 6. ... Read More »
Book Talk: Story of the twin sister left behind in Iran
By Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) - Mystery shadows "A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea", a novel about a girl growing up in rural post-revolutionary Iran while dreaming about her identical twin sister and the wonderful life she must be leading in the United States - if she is alive at all. Crowded security lines at Tehran's airport, shouting, a girl chasing her twin as a woman in a long coat holds her hand. That is the memory Saba Hafezi clings to after her mother and sister vanish in a haunting tale by Dina Nayeri. Nayeri left Iran at the age of ten for the United States. ... Read More »
Death knell for books rung too early as sex sells
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Amanda Knox offers her side of sensational murder case in memoir
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Book Talk: Man seeks joy at end of life in debut novel by 69-year-old
By Nick Olivari NEW YORK (Reuters) - Salesman or scammer, Jim makes and loses several fortunes in North America and the Brazilian jungle, but then loses himself as he runs over anyone who gets in his way. Old and broke he falls in love with - or at least has serious sexual desires for - Mara, a beautiful and ambitious Israeli woman fifty years his junior. Strangely and perhaps even more unlikely, Mara falls for Jim - or perhaps what he could be if he could again rise from poverty. "The Dream Merchant: A Novel", published by Thomas Dunne Books for St. ... Read More »
Top of U.S. bestseller list
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nora Roberts' "Whiskey Beach" debuted at the top of the Publishers Weekly's bestseller list on Thursday. The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. "Whiskey Beach" by Nora Roberts - (Putnam, $27.95) 2. "Daddy's Gone a Hunting" by Mary Higgins (Simon & Schuster, $26.99) 1 3. "Talking Eve" by Iris Johansen - (St. Martin's, $27.99) 4. "Starting Now" by Debbie Macomber (Ballantine, $26.00) 3 5. "Don't Go" by Lisa Scottoline (St Martin's, $27.99) 2 6. ... Read More »
Russia's oil riches gained and lost as wheel of fortune turned
By Melissa Akin MOSCOW (Reuters) - Some of the world's biggest fortunes were made and lost when the fall of the Soviet Union threw together a motley gang of brash young tycoons, hard-bitten oilmen and KGB veterans to scrabble for riches amidst the rubble of the Soviet oil industry. "The iron curtain did not go down, Russians like to say, it went up," says Georgetown professor Thane Gustafson in "Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia", a drama of chance and personality which ultimately determined the fate of Russia's oil. ... Read More »
"Oblivion" Review: Tom Cruise meets "Tron," "Wall-E," "The Matrix"
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''Captain Underpants'' beats ''Fifty Shades'' in library complaints
(Reuters) - Subversive toilet humor proved more offensive to Americans than bondage and eroticism last year, according to a list of most challenged books in U.S. libraries that saw complaints about "Captain Underpants" outweigh those for "Fifty Shades of Grey." The American Library Association (ALA) said Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" series for children, that features characters like Professor Poopypants and Wedgie Woman, came top of its 2012 list of books that Americans asked to be removed from libraries because of content they considered inappropriate. ... Read More »
''Veep'' Review: Bleak, Despairing, Hilarious
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Pulitzer winner Strout writes of family ties in new best seller
By Andrea Burzynski NEW YORK (Reuters) - Like her 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Olive Kitteridge," much of Elizabeth Strout's new novel takes place in a small Maine town in which the characters tackle big issues. "The Burgess Boys" centers on the family dynamics that play out between the title characters, Jim and Bob Burgess, and their sister Susan, who calls upon her brothers to smooth out a scandal involving her son. As they deal with the fallout, the siblings' relationships shift and evolve. ... Read More »
Book Talk: Tragedy prompted author to write novel in six weeks
By Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) - Elise is a single mother whose only child is killed in a sudden freak accident. Distraught, she at first wants to join her son - but then realizes she must stay alive to care for his beloved cat, which gradually draws her back into life. "The Cat", by award-winning Israeli-born author Edeet Ravel, got its start from the July 2011 news that a gunman had opened fire at a youth camp on a Norwegian holiday island, killing 77 people, setting off a compulsion that had her writing so rapidly she completed a draft of the book in six weeks. ... Read More »
"Evil Dead" looks bloody good for retro week at box office
By Todd Cunningham LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - It's retro week at the box office. "Evil Dead," a remake of Sam Raimi's gleefully gory 1981 horror classic, and Universal's 3D re-release of Stephen Spielberg's 1993 sci-fi smash "Jurassic Park" are the only two movies opening nationwide this weekend. That means the overall box office, which is running about 13 percent behind 2012, won't do much catching up this weekend. Last year at this time, "The Hunger Games" was about to cross $300 million with a $33 million third weekend. ... Read More »
"The Company You Keep" review: fugitives, radicals, secrets...but where's the passion?
By Alonso Duralde LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - In adapting Neil Gordon's novel about members of the Weather Underground still on the lam decades later for their violent actions, director Robert Redford and screenwriter Lem Dobbs ("The Limey") could have tackled big ideas about dissent and protest, honed a character study about aging radicals and the young journalist chasing after them, or even dug into Redford's past as the star of "All the President's Men" and "Three Days of the Condor" and crafted a gripping thriller. ... Read More »
New Hillary Clinton memoir likely to fuel 2016 speculation
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The man who climbed Everest, the wife who waited
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Sex, murder and conspiracy sheds new light on Edward VIII-Book
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''Big Short'' author Lewis did not defame money manager - judge
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Book Talk: Clive Cussler probes coal country, strikes in new book
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"G.I. Joe: Retaliation" review: Saturday morning cartoon writ large
By Alonso Duralde LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Studio marketers love to call action movies "thrill rides," but here's the thing about thrill rides - they work because they occasionally stop to let you catch your breath before jolting you again. Roller coasters don't just speed downhill for the entire ride; there are climbs and flat parts so that you can scream again all the louder when you take another plunge. That's not what happens in "G.I. ... Read More »
"The Croods" reviews: Critics mixed on prehistoric toon
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"From Up on Poppy Hill" review: Teenagers, and a nation, come of age in another Miyazaki triumph
By Alonso Duralde LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - There's no shortage of magic in "From Up on Poppy Hill," although it's not the kind people usually associate with the work of master animator Hayao Miyazaki. His earlier classics gave us a cat-bus ("My Neighbor Totoro"), an ambulatory house ("Howl's Moving Castle") and a pilot turned into a pig ("Porco Rosso"), among other delights. "From Up on Poppy Hill" deals strictly with more human concerns. ... Read More »
"Love and Honor" review: Earnest but predictable soldier-in-love tale
By Leah Rozen LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - It is extraordinary how smoothly the Aussies do American accents. Liam Hemsworth ("The Hunger Games") and Teresa Palmer ("Warm Bodies"), two of the young actors holding down leading roles in this banal drama about love and friendship during the Vietnam War era, never once vocally betray their Antipodean origins. That a viewer is paying more attention to the accent in which they say their words than the words themselves is indicative of the wan appeal of "Love and Honor. ... Read More »
"Olympus Has Fallen" review: Where are you, Bruce Willis, now that POTUS needs you?
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Monday, May 20, 2013
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